Bodybuilding gave Darron Glenn more than the enormous muscles and the chiseled action figure physique needed to win the overall title at this year’s National Physique Committee (NPC) USA Championships.

It gave him the strength to change his life.

“I had a bad lifestyle and I wanted to get away from it,” said Glenn, who grew up in the Bradford Heights section of Gastonia once notorious for drug problems. “I knew that if I didn’t hurry up and do something with my life, I was going to end up locked up or dead.”

That something turned out to be bodybuilding. It started in 2002, when he walked into Universal Health & Fitness in Lowell. That’s also where he got his nickname – Hollywood.

“I walked into the gym with a do-rag and sunglasses and some cut-off daisy dukes on and I had baby oil on,” Glenn admitted. “I looked like a black Hulk Hogan.”

Working out and staying in shape was all Glenn, who wrestled at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia, said he ever knew. So he devoted himself to bodybuilding, working out six days a week – a rigorous schedule he still maintains today.

“It saved my life, that’s been my story through my whole career,” he said. “It gave me a new outlook on life.”

While he reshaped his body, he began remaking his life. He joined St. John’s Baptist Church in Gastonia, where he gave his life to God. He took a job at a shipping and receiving company in Charlotte, where’s worked for 10 years. He married his sweetheart, Kamilla , and started his own personal training service.

Throughout, he’s applied the lessons he’s learned through sweat and sacrifice to his daily life. He often works 10 hour days but still manages to train three-plus hours a day during his competitive season, which is 25 to 30 weeks out before a show.

He eats six meals a day – a diet of at least 3,500 calories – but steers clear of fast food restaurants.

“If I can sacrifice going to all those places, I learn to sacrifice in real life when it comes to money, when it comes to shopping and just doing things that normal people would just blow money on,” he said.

His work ethic and determination allowed him to climb up the bodybuilding ranks, becoming the NPC light-heavyweight and overall junior champion in 2009. Glenn, who weighed 108 pounds when he graduated high school, is 237 pounds today.

Winning the “Mr.’s” light-heavyweight and overall championships at the NPC championships back in July qualified Glenn to become a pro. That means he can go to shows and compete for paychecks instead of trophies and get paid more for guest appearances and endorsements.

“Now that I’m walking around as a pro, I get that respect that I’ve been waiting for,” he said. “But once you turn pro, you’re at the bottom of the pro ranks so you start completely over.”

Glenn, who trains at Gold’s Gym in Gastonia with workout partners Perry Fail and Dion Hall, said he’s already stepped up his workouts. He knows that when he takes the stage at the New York Pro in May, he’ll be going head-to-head against some of the best in the industry.

And he wants to win.

“I’m determined to be the best,” he said. “I look at it as I’m not going to let myself down, but all the people that helped and pushed me along the way, I don’t want to let them down, either.”

ONE ON ONE WITH HOLLYWOOD

Gastonia bodybuilder Darron Glenn, who won first place in the light-heavyweight and overall divisions in the 2012 NPC USA Championships, Hollywood’s 1 on 1 Fitness, a personal training service. For details, email hollywooddarron@yahoo.com or search Darron Glenn on Facebook. You can also follow him on Twitter at @12MrUsaDarron.

BY THE NUMBERS

A numerical look at United States Bodybuilding champion Darron Glenn of Gastonia.

237 – Weight, in pounds, during the offseason

212 – Competitive weight class, in pounds

103 – Weight class, in pounds, in which Glenn wrestled at Ashbrook High School